Actual Foundry Proofs are cymbals that were created at Meinl's own cymbal foundry in Turkey. These cymbals are the raw ideas that our cymbal team created with the input of our artists and players over the past decade. Some of these cymbal proofs have made it into the catalog while others did not. These cymbals have been stored at our headquarters in Germany for several years. Recently Meinl decided to release these raw creations to the public. Many of these instruments have hand written notes from the foundry on them. These cymbals have been given a laser engraved stamp and serial number for record keeping purposes only. The printed ink logos were not added in order to preserve the authenticity of the foundry